LCWR Commits to Gospel Values in the Post-Presidential Election Season

November 17, 2016

The presidency and staff of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious congratulate President-elect Donald J. Trump and promise to work with him to build a society worthy of our values where the dignity of each person is respected and all can flourish.

We thank Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton for her many years of service and sacrifice on behalf of our nation. We are especially grateful for her tireless commitment to promoting the wellbeing of women and girls everywhere.

After a difficult and contentious election characterized by partisan rancor and divisive rhetoric, it is time for all of us to ask forgiveness and be reconciled with one another. We are called to “. . . put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another, and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14)

Now is the time to heal the deep divisions laid bare by this bruising political campaign and to tear down the walls, real or imagined, which divide us by gender, race, class, geography, lifestyle, political party and belief. This moment, these times, require us to engage in deep contemplative prayer and to risk courageous action for the sake of all who call these United States their home.

Now is the time to make space in our hearts and our homes for the needs and concerns of all God’s people, the undocumented mother, the unemployed steel-worker father, and those children and elders consigned to live in poverty. It is long past time to make room in our politics for those who have been disaffected, disenfranchised, and discarded.

We recall the many times that Catholic sisters in the United States and around the world have been called upon to exercise courage in the face of fear and division. We promise once again to be the healing hands of God. We pledge to hold the needs and concerns of all in a contemplative space, in the heart of a loving and ever faithful God.

We recommit ourselves to the Gospel call to welcome the stranger, care for creation, establish economic justice, abolish every form of modern-day slavery, and promote nonviolence and just peace and we pledge to continue to work together with all people of good will to build God’s beloved community in this place we call home.